Stolen - Nhys Glover Page 0,5

your name?” I found myself asking, my gaze never moving from the point of our connection.

“Jenna,” she said breathlessly.

That had me looking up. Her breathlessness went straight to my cock. Nothing ever went to my cock. I occasionally woke to erections, as did my brothers, but I’d never felt desire.

Was it just because I was touching her?

No, I’d touched lots of females from lots of different species. The contact was always pleasant and warm but never arousing. If Meida’s dad hadn’t mentioned, on more than one occasion, his experiences with females before Mother, I would have assumed we were incapable of feeling desire for any but our podmate. Of course, Maica had always quickly added that no female had aroused him like Mother. She was like spring water compared to dishwater.

So, were my feelings for this girl…Jenna… the same as the ones Maica had felt for those other females before Mother? Was I destined for a wild youth like he’d had? The idea repulsed me.

But Jenna… Why was her touch so arousing? Why did her breathlessness trigger my cock to jump to attention?

Embarrassment at my body’s response had me breaking contact with her and sitting back.

Could she see the tent forming beneath my breechcloth? My chair faced a little away from her, maybe it would be enough to shield my lap from view.

If she looked that way. At the moment she seemed to be looking anywhere but at me.

The idea of her seeing what she did to me was both alarming and arousing. This was a madness I’d never expected to feel. Not until I was old enough to undertake our quest.

“You seem to be less concerned about us than your friends,” I stammered out, desperate for anything to say to ease my discomfort.

“I did some healing with Kius before he left to find his brothers. I can’t say I’m healed yet, but I’m way better than I was before our sessions. He’s amazing. I can’t understand how he does what he does. Just scoops up your pain and frees you from its hold.

“Supposedly, when he worked on Marissa, because she was his podmate, he took on way too much of her stuff. It nearly killed him. With me, he took it slower. And I think that’s better. It’s hard to explain, but getting over what we experienced shouldn’t be an instant thing. It needs to be a process with a certain number of steps. And you shouldn’t take the next step until you’re ready…” She looked at me, startled. “Sorry, that was way more sharing than your question required.”

I fought the urge to touch her again. Instead, I reassured her with my words.

“No, I’m happy to hear about the experience. Not the details of your abduction, I mean the healing experience. I have no idea how Kius does what he does. I saw him in the medical center after he overdid it with Marissa. It didn’t seem possible that a person could nearly die from talking to someone.”

Jenna nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, weird, right? But the talking just brings the feelings and associated thoughts to the surface. Those are what he siphons off. But he can’t siphon off what you don’t focus on. So it’s a shared process. I had to be willing to go there with him. And that was a big ask at first. He was so alien, and I couldn’t help seeing him as one of the bastards who hurt me. Rationally, I knew he wasn’t. That all he wanted to do was help. But being rational was never my strong suit.”

The way she dismissed herself disturbed me. Couldn’t she see that it was normal for emotions to take precedence over rational thought in stressful situations?

“I doubt anyone could have remained rational after what you went through,” I said finally.

Her look of gratitude made me feel ten feet tall.

“I feel very… comfortable with you,” she said shyly. “I see that as a good sign. A sign that I’m healing.”

I smiled at her, keeping my fangs safely out of sight. I didn’t want to disrupt her feelings of comfort by reminding her that I was an apex predator.

“I’m glad. I like you,” I admitted, even though it took every bit of courage I had to tell her how I felt.

She ginned back. “I like you too. It’s good to have a new friend.”

At that moment, Jade came jogging in our direction, looking flustered and stressed.

“Sorry, sorry. I’ve been gone longer than I expected. It’s crazy over there at